Move-ins and move-outs

A property changes hands. The previous owner moved out, the new owner is moving in. The property itself doesn’t change — same address, same lot, same balance — but every resident attached to it changes. This article is the playbook.

The principle to keep in mind

The property is the unit of record. The new owner inherits the property’s state — balance, history, ledger — unless you explicitly settle it as part of the closing. Don’t delete the property and recreate it. You’d lose the audit trail, and the new owner would lose visibility into anything the previous owner left behind.

Move-out flow (previous owner leaves)

Do these in order. Most are quick.

1. Settle the balance

Before anything else, decide what happens to the outstanding balance:

• Closing settled it — the seller paid it off as part of the closing. Mark the property’s balance as $0 by recording the payment.
• Buyer assumed it — the new owner took on the balance at closing (sometimes done as a price adjustment). Leave the balance in place; the new owner will see it when they sign up.
• Board agreed to write it off — rare, but happens for hardship or legal reasons. Add a credit transaction equal to the outstanding balance.

Whichever route, the answer should be a transaction in the ledger, not a manual balance edit. See How the ledger works.

2. Capture move-out details

Add an internal note on the property: closing date, who the seller was, who the buyer is, anything weird about the transition. Future-you will need this when someone asks about it 18 months later.

3. Unlink the previous owner

Open the property, remove the previous primary resident. You have three choices for what to do with their account:

• Just unlink — they keep their account, can’t see this property. Good if they’re moving to another unit in the community.
• Mark inactive — they can’t log in but their record (and history) stays. Good for clean exits.
• Delete — fully gone. Reserve for explicit user requests.

Don’t forget co-residents — if a spouse, family member, or tenant was also linked, decide on each.

4. Decide on dues for the transition month

Two patterns are common:

• Don’t prorate. Whoever owns the property on the dues run date pays the full amount. Simpler.
• Prorate. Manually adjust the next dues charge to split the month between seller and buyer. More work; check your bylaws on whether this is required.

If you prorate, do it as two transactions: a credit to reduce the standard dues for the property, then later a charge to the new owner for their portion (or just record it in the closing docs and skip the system entry).

Move-in flow (new owner arrives)

1. Decide how the new owner gets access

You have two options for getting the new owner into the system:

Option A: Pre-approve their email. Add their email to the property’s pre-approved list. When they sign up via the open join code and pick this property, they auto-approve.

Option B: Direct invite. Send them an invite email that links their signup to this property automatically. Use this if you want it locked down (no risk of them picking the wrong property).

Either way, when they sign up they become the primary resident of the property they’re moving into.

2. Confirm the property’s state on their first login

When the new owner first logs in, they’ll see:

• Their property’s balance (whatever you settled to in the move-out flow)
• The property’s request/violation history (typically a non-issue, but be aware)
• The property’s ledger (transactions visible to residents)

If anything looks wrong, fix it now — the longer you wait, the more confusing it gets.

3. Welcome them properly

This isn’t a system step, but it matters for adoption: send a welcome announcement (or a 1:1 message) covering:

• Their property’s dues schedule and amount
• Where to pay online
• How to submit requests / book amenities
• Who their board contacts are
• Any community-specific quirks (parking rules, pool hours, etc.)

Some boards keep a written welcome message they reuse for new owners.

A worked example

Lot 17 — sold March 15, closing settled the $400 outstanding balance.

Move-out (March 15):

1. Record a $400 payment on Lot 17 (memo: “Closing settlement, [seller name] → [buyer name]”)
2. Add internal note: “Sold to [buyer], closed 3/15/2026”
3. Unlink seller (mark account inactive — they’re leaving the community)
4. Unlink seller’s spouse (co-resident) — same

Move-in (March 16):

5. Add buyer’s email to pre-approved list, OR send direct invite
6. Buyer signs up, becomes primary resident
7. Buyer’s spouse signs up as co-resident
8. April 1 dues run posts $200 to Lot 17 — buyer’s first charge

Total time: maybe 10 minutes. Audit trail intact for the entire history of the property.

Edge cases

”The previous owner’s payment cleared after they moved out”

Happens — mailed checks, ACH lag. Record the payment normally; it’ll go against whoever is currently primary on the property. If that creates a credit you owe back to the seller, settle it as a refund.

”The property is being held vacant before the new owner moves in”

Unlink the old owner. The property’s status will reflect Vacant until a new resident is linked. If you want dues to pause during the vacancy, set the property’s dues amount to $0 and revert when the new owner arrives.

”The HOA bought back the property” (foreclosure, etc.)

The HOA itself is now the “owner.” Don’t link a resident. Set the property’s dues to $0 if you want to pause dues accrual during the period. The board manages it as a special case until it’s sold to a new resident.

”The new owner is a corporation / LLC, not a person”

Link the manager or registered agent’s email as the primary. The system doesn’t model entities separately from people, so the human contact is what gets the account. Note in the property’s internal notes that the “real” owner is the entity.

”The previous owner won’t give up access”

If they’re refusing to leave the community in some interpersonal sense, that’s not a software problem. From the system perspective, just unlink them — they’ll lose access immediately on next page load. If they’ve shared their login credentials with someone, change their account to inactive (which also kills active sessions).

Where to go next

• Linking residents to a property — the linking mechanics in detail
• How the ledger works — settling balances at closing
• Property statuses — what each status means